Roger Deakins
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“At the End of the Movie You Have Nine Different Deliverables to Time”: Roger and James Deakins on Still Photography, LUTs and Previs
Cinematographer Roger Deakins—CBE, ASC, BSC and recently knighted—and his collaborator and wife, James Ellis Deakins, recently visited New York to talk about his book of still photographs. Byways, published by Damiani Books, is the first book from the two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer. It includes previously unpublished black-and-white photos spanning five decades, from 1971 to the present. North Devon farms, British seaside towns, the deserts outside Albuquerque: Deakins’s singular vision is apparent no matter what the subject. Deakins is known for his collaborations with directors like Denis Villeneuve, Sam Mendes and the Coen brothers. With his wife James he also hosts the […]
by Daniel Eagan on Jun 8, 2023 -
Watch: Roger Deakins on Personal Connection through Cinematography
To supplement Matt Mulcahey’s interview with Roger Deakins about shooting Blade Runner 2049, check out ARRI’s interview with the legendary DP. He starts with a few general anecdotes, notes that he’s not lit the way he’d light a scene, and tells a story about lighting a scene in Prisoners with just a lighter, among other highlights.
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 10, 2017 -
The Color of the Future: Roger Deakins on Blade Runner 2049
There isn’t much left that legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins hasn’t done behind a camera. He’s shot science fiction, war movies, biopics and westerns. He’s dabbled in gorgeous black and white and lensed a Bond film. He’s forged rewarding collaborations with the Coen Brothers, Sam Mendes and Denis Villeneuve and worked with Scorsese and Sayles. So, is there anything remaining on Deakins’s cinematic bucket list? “What I really like doing is small personal dramas,” said Deakins with a laugh. “I don’t really like action films. I like films about people. I would’ve loved to have done Ken Loach’s films or movies […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Sep 14, 2017 -
Watch: “Roger Deakins Can’t Get a Break”
Roger Deakins has been nominated for an Oscar for his exceptional work as a DP 13 times — and won precisely zero. Daniel Mcilwraith’s video essay compares and contrasts the films Deakins was nominated for with the films he was beaten out by.
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 7, 2017 -
Watch: Tony Zhou on the Coen Brothers’ Use of Shot/Reverse Shot
Tony Zhou covers a lot of ground in his latest video essay, which examines the Coen brothers’ use of shot/reverse shot. Noting that they prefer to film conversations from the middle rather than over the shoulder with a long lens, he finds an appropriate video interview with Roger Deakins that discusses his lens preference. Then it’s on to framing, how the characters are defined by their environments, and the emotional effect of these shot choices: both uncomfortable and funny, Zhou concludes.
by Vadim Rizov on Feb 25, 2016 -
Watch: Roger Deakins and Matthew Heineman Talk Shooting the Drug War
One fiction, one documentary, Sicario and Cartel Land were the year’s two most vivid cinematic vocations of violence surrounding the Mexican drug wars. Here, courtesy of VICE, is a great conversation between Sicario D.P. Roger Deakins and Cartel Land director and cinematographer Matthew Heineman. They get deep into their visual ideas for the film as well as the narrative and moral issues those ideas are designed to represent.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 20, 2016 -
Storyboard Artist J. Todd Anderson on Working with the Coen Brothers and Hail, Caesar!
J. Todd Anderson likes to say that he’s the first person to see a new Coen brothers movie. As the Coens’ storyboard artist, Anderson is the conduit between the film in Joel and Ethan’s imagination and its first physical manifestation. “My job is to put down on paper what they see in their heads,” Anderson says. “I’m just an interpretive artist. Joel and Ethan come up with the shots. I just draw them.” Anderson has been “just drawing them” for every Coen brothers feature since 1987’s Raising Arizona. The Coens’ latest, Hail, Caesar!, follows a ’50s Hollywood fixer (Josh Brolin) as […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Feb 18, 2016 -
“So Much of What You Do is Intuitive”: Roger Deakins on Sicario
In an interview with Variety for his new film Sicario, director Denis Villeneuve claimed that the movie’s cinematographer Roger Deakins “could shoot with a shoe and it would look great.” Hyperbole aside, Villeneuve isn’t far off: if you can affix a lens to it, Roger Deakins can coax lyrical yet naturalistic images from it. Armed with an ARRI ALEXA Studio on Sicario – a slight step up from a shoe cam – Deakins pushed the camera to its boundaries to capture both the cruel harshness of the sunlight and the menacing unknown of the shadows for Villeneuve’s politically and morally complex tale of […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Oct 14, 2015 -
“I Just Like Doing My Job”: DP Roger Deakins on Working with the Coens, Digital vs. Film and His Most Difficult Shots
It was fitting that, in the year that the Coen Brothers presided over the Cannes jury, lens makers Angénieux chose Roger Deakins as the subject of their tribute at the festival. Born in Torquay, England, Deakins is best known for his collaborations with the Coen Brothers, having shot most of their movies since Palme d’Or winner Barton Fink. He’s also shot three films for Sam Mendes, including the blockbuster Skyfall. At Cannes, he also had a film in competition, Sicario, his second collaboration with Denis Villeneuve, and at the festival it was announced that they would team up again for […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Jul 30, 2015 -
Watch: DP Roger Deakins Talks LUTs, Sicario and the ALEXA
In this interview conducted by ARRI reps at Cannes, the great DP Roger Deakins talks about his work on Sicario, his (equally fantastic-looking) second collaboration with Denis Villeneuve after Prisoners. This is a fairly technical conversation, as Deakins talks about shooting with an open gate on the ALEXA for the first time, why he prefers to minimize his work with LUTs and his approach to storyboarding.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 15, 2015
